Ski Area Design.Detailed Site Planning

Ecosign (ECOlogical DeSIGN) Mountain Resort Planners Ltd. is the world’s most experienced mountain resort planning firm. During the past 39 years, Ecosign has established itself as a leader in the design of successful, award winning and profitable mountain resorts completing over 500 resort development projects in 42 countries spanning 6 continents as well as the design of 6 Olympic Winter Games bids and venue Master Plan. We also designed several World Alpine Championships venues.

Our staff of land planners and technical professionals have been involved in the design development, approval process and construction implementation of a wide spectrum of projects within the realm of land planning. Senior staff possesses a comprehensive understanding of complex, multi-disciplinary Civic, Commercial, Recreational and Residential projects. Ecosign’s commitment to the planning and design process, attention to detail and strong presentation skills are supported by a leading edge technical department, with technical qualifications and expertise in AutoCad, 3D modeling, 3D Civil and landscape design.

Planning for four-season recreation activities has come to the forefront of mountain resort design throughout the world in recent years. Increasingly, mountain resorts that had focused solely on winter recreation are now planning and developing other recreation facilities that will attract guests throughout the year. Similarly, there is a growing trend in new mountain resort developments where alpine skiing is not the dominant attraction and rather the resort offers a variety of four-season activities and facilities. A four-season recreation plan is integral to creating a mountain resort that is successful on a year round basis and contributes to the sustainability of the supporting commercial enterprises within the resort. Planning for year-round use of a mountain resort’s winter recreation infrastructure can contribute significantly to annual revenue and increase the return on investment.

Ecosign’s four-season recreation planning process includes an evaluation of each site to identify the recreation opportunities specific to the resort’s brand, the owner’s vision and the resort’s market focus. The physical capacity of the terrain is analyzed to identify and assess the potential for clusters and networks of four-season recreational activities. Ecosign then prepares a Four Season Recreation Master Plan with overlays for the winter and summer seasons. We can also provide conceptual design for the recreational amenities proposed such as mountain bike parks, trail networks, golf course routing plans, water play areas, spas etc.

Ecosign has completed venue master plans for resorts hosting major competitive events such as the Olympic Winter Games and the World Alpine Championships and Winter Universiades. Olympic Venues include master plans for Mount Allan (Nakiska), and Canada Olympic Park, Alberta, site of the 1988 Winter Olympics, Snowbasin, Utah, site of the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Alpine speed events, Whistler/Blackcomb, British Columbia, site of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games alpine skiing and the Callaghan Valley Nordic Venue (Cross Country, Biathlon and Ski Jumping) and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic games in Russia. We have also designed the Venue Master Plan and detailed design for construction for the 2018 PyeongChang, Korea Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding venues at Bokwang Phoenix Park. We recently won an international design competition to design all Snow Cluster venues for the Beijing OWG bid to the IOC to host the Games in 2022.

World Alpine Championships venues include Sierra Nevada, Spain, the site of the 1996 World Alpine Championships and the redesign of the famous Kandahar downhill course at St. Anton, Austria for the 2001 World Championships. We have also prepared a master plan for Beida Lake Resort, China for the 2007 Asian Winter Games, Shymbulak, Kazakhstan for the 2011 Asian Winter Games as well as the 2015 Universiade games in Puerto de la Ragua, Granada,Spain.

Ecosign has been retained by several state and federal governments to assess vast regions of countries and thereafter developing Regional Tourism Plans. We have also prepared plans for multi-resort interconnects for 18 different projects in Asia, North America and Europe.

Regional Studies – Ecosign has been retained by several governments to assess vast regions of countries searching for areas suitable for potential mountain resorts. The study areas have been entire mountain ranges up to 22,200 square kilometers in size. The preliminary step is a Technical Assessment of the study area’s physiographic and climatic conditions utilizing satellite data. The next phase includes defining preferred zones and then more detailed plans are created.

Connection Studies – There is a current trend all over the world to connect adjacent ski areas to create a larger ski circus with more terrain and variety. Originally developed in France and Austria, these large, inter-connected ski circuses are more attractive to destination customers who can stay in the hotel or village of their choice and benefit from a huge region for skiing, snowboarding and other winter sports. The large ski circuses are also attractive to day visitors who can access a number of ski fields from the access portal closest to their home. Advances in lift technology and the trend to all season use have increased the technical and economic viability of these types of resort to resort connections. In the summer the aerial connections offer fantastic access to sightseeing and hiking in the alpine.

Transportation Studies – Ecosign is a leader in providing innovative solutions for the unique transportation challenges facing mountain resorts. By analyzing land-use data and on-site survey information, Ecosign documents the “motivation for movement” in resort communities. By integrating new skier staging facilities with existing resort land uses and introducing “state of the art” transportation technologies, Ecosign has assisted both new and established mountain resort communities achieve increased visitor growth targets, while reducing congestion and pressure on the environment.

A successful Resort Area Master Plan should be economically sound and fiscally responsible. This requirement led Ecosign to develop a number of financial analyses and planning techniques to help maximize the profitability of existing operations and to model the economic viability of new or expanded facilities and associated real estate developments. Market Research is an essential component of the resort development process. Ecosign maintains an extensive ski resort database, which includes historical skier/snowboarder visitation levels and lift installation statistics from resorts around the world. The company also monitors population growth and socio-economic trends, and conducts targeted client surveys to identify consumer preferences and purchasing patterns worldwide.

The global emergence of recreation and tourism-based industries has provided a relatively recent need for sophisticated resort communities in remote natural areas. The challenge is to integrate the lodging and commercial components with the unique environmental and recreational attributes of each site.

The overall concept of resort master planning is centered upon balancing the resort’s potential capacity. This should be a balanced figure which reflects the goals of the master plan, the mountain’s skier carrying capacity, the capacity of the base area and the market potential of the resort.

Since 1975, Ecosign has established a track record of designing and promoting pedestrian-oriented mountain resort villages that highlight and capture the surrounding natural beauty of the resort. Ecosign possesses the creative design skills and development expertise to guide village development from concept to reality. Ecosign has all the necessary tools required to illustrate and develop the clients’ vision every step of the way.

Ecosign is a true pioneer in the design of efficient and user-friendly mountain resorts. The firm has nurtured a culture of constantly challenging the status quo and we specialize in developing plans that allow existing resorts to take advantage of the latest breakthroughs in technology. Some of our design innovations include: replacing two or three fixed-grip lifts with one high speed detachable-grip chairlift; converting detachable chairs to gondola cabins for summer business; conceptual design of loading 4,000 persons per hour on gondola lifts, the “diamond” maze system to accommodate chair lift loading up to 3,600 persons per hour; measuring actual skier densities and vertical transport meters consumption; designing “parent free” facilities for children; and providing accurate skier traffic staging and distribution plans. We specified the first ever Chondola in 1982 and these Combi or Telemix lifts are frequently being installed worldwide in the right circumstances.